Fires, floods, hurricanes: Disaster experts weigh ‘new normal’

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just released its 2018 hurricane forecasts. Here's what you need to know.
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Residents of a McAllen, Texas, neighborhood walk down a flooded street that trapped an ambulance during a second day of heavy rains and street flooding, on June 21, 2018.(Photo: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY)

BROOMFIELD, Colorado — On the heels of the costliest year for U.S. disasters, one question stood out at a gathering here this week of researchers, rescuers and emergency managers.

Is this the new normal?

A second query quickly followed.

What can possibly be done — and done better — if it is?

Hosted by the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder, the gathering included talk of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's embattled National Flood Insurance Program and the role of pre-disaster wildfire mitigation.

“It is clear that normal isn’t necessarily a good thing for lower-income households.”

John Henneberger, co-director of Texas Housers

More than 500 experts, representing at least 43 states and 15 countries, gathered to review an especially destructive year marked by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and a series of record-setting California wildfires.

Sixteen separate billion-dollar disaster events affected the U.S. in 2017, including three hurricanes, eight severe storms, two inland floods, a crop freeze, drought and wildfires, said Adam Smith, an applied climatologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The damage surpassed $306 billion, far beyond the previous U.S. annual record cost of $214 billion.

The idea of the “normative disaster,” Smith said, should be alarming.

“We are running out of adjectives for describing what is happening,” he added.

'Transformative potential'?

Knowing that every $1 spent on mitigation at the community level saves $6 down the road, experts focused on finding ways to prepare for a disasters.

And in an age of rebuilding after mega-events that can reset a city — sometimes with longstanding race and class inequalities — researchers called for a focus on the “transformative potential of disaster.”

“We have to start designing recovery to rebuild equitably,” said John Henneberger, co-director of Texas Housers, a nonprofit housing group, in his keynote speech Monday. “When I think about conditions across Texas’ almost 100 counties that have been impacted in the last four large-scale natural disasters, it is clear that normal isn’t necessarily a good thing for lower-income households.”

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Henneberger and others called for the creation of a “disaster survivor’s bill of rights.” The principles, he said, would give communities more say in what happens after disaster.

That, along with stronger pre-disaster recovery planning and including stakeholders in vulnerable, often disadvantaged communities could fix some of the chaos that often follows major events, he said.

Fixing some of the bottleneck — including what projects need funding and how those efforts will be prioritized — would streamline local efforts.

'Failure to monitor recovery processes'

While revamped planning for fire, floods and earthquakes is sorely needed, what happens after water rises in Texas or flames tear through the hills of California is increasingly important, researchers agreed.

“There’s a fundamental failure to monitor recovery processes,” said Walter Peacock, director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. “... It’s ripe for problems, ripe for biases, ripe for racism, classism, issues of equity to be dismissed, forgotten, not there.”

“(The system is) ripe for problems, ripe for biases, ripe for racism, classism, issues of equity to be dismissed, forgotten, not there.”

Walter Peacock, director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University

The Natural Hazards Center is a repository of sorts for research and best practices in the realm of emergencies and disaster. In a field where disconnect abounds, its annual workshop is a chance for academics to brush shoulders with emergency management officials, sociologists, engineers, rescuers and those involved in longer-term recovery.

Edward Gabriel spent 26 years as a paramedic with the New York City Fire Department and now works for the federal government in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. He oversees local and state disaster preparedness and response and pleaded for researchers to connect with line-level rescuers during and after disasters.

Otherwise, the barrier between researchers and responders can stall any meaningful work that could benefit people on the ground.

“Give me an output that’s practical. Give me an output that’s operational,” he said. “... Take the science, take the studies, take the work that you’re going to do and make it applicable for us.”

Plea to rebuild with equity in mind

In summarizing the week, Lori Peek, director of the Natural Hazards Center and a sociology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, called on everyone to view disaster-related issues through a justice lens.

Recognizing why disparities exist in the first place can set in motion plans for fixing problems when something inevitably happens.

“These are not natural disasters. These are disasters by design,” Peek said. “... Many of the leading minds in this community have taught us that there may be a threshold for human suffering just as there are thresholds when infrastructure shatters and buildings collapse.”

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PI Joe Fillingame and Mike Ludwig, volunteers with Bonita-based We Care Ministries as well as Acts 20:35, put studs on the home of Christel Douglas, 86, after it was deemed unsafe due to mold from Hurricane Irma Friday, Feb. 23, 2018 in Bonita Springs.
Luke Franke/Naples Daily News

Christel Douglas, 86, poses for a portrait on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018 in Bonita Springs. Volunteers with Bonita-based We Care Ministries as well as Acts 20:35, a nationwide disaster relief group, reconstruced her home after it was deemed unsafe due to mold from Hurricane Irma.
Luke Franke/Naples Daily News

Volunteers with Bonita-based We Care Ministries as well as Acts 20:35, a nationwide disaster relief group, reconstruct the home of Christel Douglas, 86, after it was deemed unsafe due to mold from Hurricane Irma Friday, Feb. 23, 2018 in Bonita Springs.
Luke Franke/Naples Daily News

Volunteers with Bonita-based We Care Ministries as well as Acts 20:35, a nationwide disaster relief group, reconstruct the home of Christel Douglas, 86, in the Florida heat after it was deemed unsafe due to mold from Hurricane Irma Friday, Feb. 23, 2018 in Bonita Springs.
Luke Franke/Naples Daily News

Volunteers with Bonita-based We Care Ministries as well as Acts 20:35, a nationwide disaster relief group, reconstruct the home of Christel Douglas, 86, after it was deemed unsafe due to mold from Hurricane Irma Friday, Feb. 23, 2018 in Bonita Springs.
Luke Franke/Naples Daily News

Volunteers with Bonita-based We Care Ministries as well as Acts 20:35, a nationwide disaster relief group, reconstruct the home of Christel Douglas, 86, after it was deemed unsafe due to mold from Hurricane Irma Friday, Feb. 23, 2018 in Bonita Springs.
Luke Franke/Naples Daily News

Volunteers with Bonita-based We Care Ministries as well as Acts 20:35, a nationwide disaster relief group, reconstruct the home of Christel Douglas, 86, after it was deemed unsafe due to mold from Hurricane Irma Friday, Feb. 23, 2018 in Bonita Springs.
Luke Franke/Naples Daily News

Volunteers with Bonita-based We Care Ministries as well as Acts 20:35, a nationwide disaster relief group, reconstruct the home of Christel Douglas, 86, after it was deemed unsafe due to mold from Hurricane Irma Friday, Feb. 23, 2018 in Bonita Springs.
Luke Franke/Naples Daily News

Volunteers with Bonita-based We Care Ministries as well as Acts 20:35, a nationwide disaster relief group, reconstruct the home of Christel Douglas, 86, after it was deemed unsafe due to mold from Hurricane Irma Friday, Feb. 23, 2018 in Bonita Springs.
Luke Franke/Naples Daily News